“SEI?‼” A ear shredding voice resounds under the Sekihara estate.

“I’M BUSY‼! BUZZ OFF‼!” A youngling’s voice from afar responds in kind.

“Geez. Preschoolers and their brand new consoles. I apologize for having you witness this when you barely stepped into our humble housing Shinjirou-Sensei.”

“No need for apologies Mrs. Sekihara. I’m nothing but honored that one of my very first pupils was personally requested by a woman of the Sekihara family! I promise that your son will be in good hands.”

“Ahaha! For the money I’m spending. He better be! His father has been nothing but a nuisance lately and raising him by myself nowadays is so stressing that its giving me crow’s feet.”

“I assure crow feet or not. No gem in the world is matched by your beauty Mrs. Sekihara.”

“Oh stop. You flatterer. I’m not giving you any more raises!”

“Bwahahaha! Can’t really blame a man for trying!”

The pair continues exchanging pleasantries and laughs as they walk towards the door upstairs written ‘keep out’ in bold red letters. The lady reaches for the doorknob but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Shit! That rascal locked himself in and changed the lock again! One sec Sensei! I’ll bring one of my men to bust it open for-”

“There’s no need. Please let me handle this.” He proceeds to pull a toothpick out of his pocket and proceeded to fiddle inside the keyhole.

*Creaaaakk!*

Ten seconds later and the door slides itself open.

“Oh my! Impressive!” The woman claps in amazement.

“Heh. It isn’t the first time I did something like this.”

“Mercenary work used to fit your old family MO pretty well. Tales of Raiga-San’s feats were foretold to me even I was little. A shame he was the last Tsunaboshi on that business. I would love hire someone so competent for that line of work.”

Shinjirou rolled his eyes in response and stares at the pitch black room right in front of them.

“…Would you mind me handling your son privately from here Mrs. Sekihara?”

“Is there a problem with my presence?”

“Not at all. But, your son might be more reciprocate if he doesn’t feel as intimidated by you right next to me breathing down his neck as we negotiate and study.”

“I see. No problem at all Sensei I’ll just have a cup of coffee downstairs and check if his father is still working around the clock or not then. Bastard still has a lot of money to regain in order to recoup our losses…”

“Ahahaha…” The teacher nervously laughs as she left and he steps into the darkened room.

(Note to self. Never borrow money from a Sekihara. Guess the old man wasn’t joking around when he told us that…)

The room was only lit faintly by the large TV mounted on a wall over a hundred feet away. Lying down on the ground was a small boy with his eyes glued at the screen.

“TCH. You the new the teacher?” He asked without turning his head back at his sudden visitor.

“Yep. Shinjirou Tsunaboshi. Nice to meet to you Sei-Chan.”

“I’ll be blunt. I don’t care about you or any idiot helping me with my grades or whatever. Just sit on the bed for about an hour or two and leave. There’s five grand inside a briefcase underneath the matress if you accept pretend to do your job. Money is what all you are after at the end of the day.”

“I’m afraid…I’ll have to refuse.”

“*Sigh* Great. Another one of the uptight types huh…”

“Oh no no no! You got it wrong kiddo. I saw your grades and school history before I accepted your mother’s offer. You barely need supervision or helps with your grades. I honestly questioned what my role here was in the first place when your mother hired me.”

Peaked with curiosity. The game suddenly paused and the boy finally faced the newcomer in his room.

“Oh really?”

“Yep. I might still need to step in every now and then to keep you in check but I don’t intend to grind you to the bone or nag at your ear like the other tutors before me. What you need isn’t even better grades but a goal and the rest would probably solve itself. The attitude could have a small adjustment but you already are a smart cookie. Gaining your trust will be my first step as tutor.”

“What you would suggest them? There’s isn’t much a kid like me to do and I doubt you would find something that convinces me to put in the effort.”

“I guess true that’s true. Women? Nah never mind. Too soon for that. Money?”

“I’m already filthy rich Sensei.”

“Prestige?

“Family name already covers that in spades.”

“Welp. Shit. I’m out of ideas. How about we get take things slow and try to find something you would like to do over time? I brought my own copy ‘Sailor Kart XI’. Wanna play?”

“Fine by me. Not like I’m losing much here. But I’m picking Sailor Cinnamon.”

“I’m going with Sailor Pear then.”

“The one with a huge rear? Wow. What a shocker.”

“Hey. I’m a man almost on my forties! Gotta stick with one of the classics amirite kiddo?”

“You asking the wrong kid. I wasn’t even born when the show aired its first season…”

Sei turns off his console and plugs another one while Shinji stares at the mattress next to him as wipes the sweat off his forehead.

 (Still. Five grand?! Geez. I almost hesitated for a moment there…)

*****

{You said all that and stuck with me all the way through until you then betrayed my expectations. You distanced yourself from me without telling me why or even saying goodbye. Now look where I got without your guidance. I thought you were my confidant. My friend…)

*****

*SLAM! SLAM!*

“You better be ready to attend for this last week Sei! I’m not even kidding! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TIME, MONEY AND WORK I HAD TO POUR TO PREVENT YOU FROM FLUNKING A YEAR AND BERSMICH OUR REPUTATION EVEN FUTHER?!”

Sei’s mother yells at the top of her lungs as she slams her fist against my gated door underground.

"OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!!!"

Sei ignores all his mother attempts to break in and noises he sat on his mattress cross-legged with a stapler on his hand. Hesitating as he pulls the tips of his sharp green ears to the back of his neck.

“Don’t make me cut off the electricity from this bunker because you know I will! I know you won’t be able to take the boredom inside for long!”

“Fuck! MURMHHH‼!” A painful sting radiates his entire head as he bites into a piece of wood in order to stop his screams.

Once the pain subsided a little and his ears stopped bleeding.

“ARGhhH‼”

*Crack!*

Sei checks on a hand mirror if his long ears were hidden away before throwing at the floor in anger. He then puts on a pair of gloves and the very baggy stretched out hoodie that was on his chair.  He now constantly wears it. Even at his own home.

(This is so stupid! I’m smarter and better than every single loser in that school! These damned foggy memories haunting my dreams too! I can’t even sleep in peace! What did I do to deserve this?!)

As if goaded by fate itself. Sei finds himself staring at his face at now cracked hand mirror and the St. Marise yearbook beneath his feet.

(Right…I forgot. Can’t blame anyone but myself… What was I thinking when I went ahead and did ‘that’?)

*****

A few months earlier…

(Shit. I can’t believe our homeroom teacher had to pick me of all people and the worst girls in our class for cleaning duty the same day ‘Clockwork Wife’ released.  Just my rotten luck!)

Sei was dashing through the hallway with a broom and cleaning supplies in hand.

“HAHAHA‼!”  He stops next to the door instead of entering once he hears the loud cackling coming from his classroom. Peeking a little bit and he finds the two girls laughing at they talk staring at their phones while sitting on a couples of desks together

 “…and then she actually jumped off!”

“No way! Just a little pushing around and she took off just like that?”

“I heard straight from one of my cousin friends who got expelled! She has no reason to lie after interrogated and giving her the same testimony multiple times! Both her and the others say she still wanders these halls cursing those who hurt and disgraced her some ‘secret’ came out.”

“Scary! Didn’t some of them ended up insane and locked up in an asylum? Claiming they saw her or kept hearing her voice in their dreams or something like that?”

“Yep. Who knows? She could be with us right now for all we know!”

“…This talk is starting to freak me out. Where the heck is Sekihara with the supplies?”

“Meh. The fatso probably stopped for a snack or went home already.”

“That SOB does the bare minimum when actually comes to school and still keeps high grades so it wouldn’t surprise me if he actually did. Right, Setsuna-San?”

They turned their heads and ask at the girl which Sei just now realized it was there in the room with them the entire time.

Sitting across the other side of the classroom in front of the blackboard. She’s wearing pair of glasses and quietly reading a master degree book about quantum physics.

*Sigh*

Setsuna closed her book as she sighed and stood up while patting her currently still long silky black hair. It had a black shining luster under the sunset. They wouldn’t admit but the way she did that and the sight of it captivated Sei and the girls hearts a little.

The face of her beloved one popped in Setsuna’s mind as she answered.

“You girls are so shallow. If all you do to define a man is his appearance, then there is something wrong with you two. Pretty pathetic if you ask me…”

“Haaaa?!” The veins in one of the girls almost jumped in response to Setsuna’s comment.

“That’s rich coming from the friend of ‘Miss Demeanor’!” The other lashed out.

Keeping her composure. Setsuna answered calmly:
“You two really have an uglier personality than Ai’s. She sometimes might be a brute who throws a tantrum when things don’t go her way but we keep each other in line at least. You two need to work on that before judging other people.”

“Friends don’t smack talk each other like that!”

“…Yes they do. Doesn’t mean I can’t criticize her or have to endorse everything she does. I can say what I think about her without holding back because I’m her closest friend and she would do me the same courtesy. Now if excuse me. I have a library to attend to.”

As quietly as her answered.  Setsuna put away her book, picked up stuff from her desk, grabbed her bag and left. Sei quickly hid himself in the neighboring classroom. She took a deep sigh once she left and muttered under her breath:

“Finally. At least they stopped talking about ghosts…”

Sei felt his cheeks to rise in temperature as he stared at the girl’s back in admiration all the way until she disappeared from the hallway as her legs somewhat shaking turned into the corner.

“That mute bitch! Looking down on us! Who the hell does she think she is?!”

“Yeah! She was better off when she had her mouth shut! She’s getting payback for this!”

“Kukuku! I had just the best idea for that…”

The way she spoke made Sei worried so he leaned his ear against the wall.

“I heard from my sister she once saw her flirting an older man around town! It would be a real shame if everyone heard about this and someone said it was around a red light district too…I think she sent me a screenshot a few weeks ago let me see…Aha! here!”

After fiddling a bit with her phone. The girl shows her sister selfie. Behind her could be seen Setsuna linking arms with an older fat man seemingly in his forties and walking around town during the city Spring festival last year.

“I’ll spread the rumors and prepare the big screen for everyone to see tomorrow! The teachers or that bitch won’t know what hit her until it’s too late!”

 “Who knows? Maybe the next one offing herself could be her!”

“But first! Let’s leave a nice little ‘message’ for her on desk shall we?”

“HAHAHAHA‼”

Sei went pale and closed his mouth with his hand so they don’t hear him gasp as they continued to pan out their wicked plans.

(Dammit! I don’t care about what she does in her own time but I have to do something! But what can I even do?)

Sei took a deep breath, closed his eyes and used all brainpower to try and come up with something.

“…That’s it!”

After pondering for a long time after the girls had left. Sei had an idea. One he would come to regret and pay the price for it later…

****

The next day…after class period ended and everyone else were preparing to leave.

“All right. I have everything we need to break into the broadcasting room. Including the crowbar.”

One of the girls from yesterday whispers in the other’s ear.

(Alright. Just like I rehearsed…one…two and…) Sei takes a deep breath and suddenly gets up from desk as fast as he could and ran.

“Perfect we all need now is to wait for teacher to leave so we can-”

“Woah!” He then pretends to have tripped and ‘accidentally’ slams into the girls into the floor alongside him and spill out the contents inside his bag for everyone to see.

“Gyah! You moron! Watch where you are going lard ass!”

“AAAAHHH! My phone!”

“Oh my god! I’m sorry! I’ll buy you a new one!” Sei used the distraction to pretend he sat on her phone with all his weight by mistake and broke it in half.

“Hm? What this?” One of the girls picks one of the many magazines Sei had dropped on the floor.

“W-Wait! That’s-”

“’Swimsuit Freaks! Glasses Special Issue’?”

 “The-These are from a friend! I’-I’m safekeeping it for him!”

(Can’t believe that silly 13th birthday gift Sensei gave me would actually come in handy like this…)

“Liar! You got no friends!”

“Hahaha…You got me. What do you two say we keep a this a secret? I’ll let you keep that one!”

“”Gross! Why the hell would we want something like this?!”

“I dunno! For future reference? You two look like you’ll need it sooner or later! Haha!” He bashfully rubs the back of his head with a jovial insincere grin.

"Excuse me?!"

“Screw you!”

(Perfect! Thanks to their simple one track mind they already forgot all about Setsuna-San and are holding a grudge against me! Now for the final blow…)

“…What do you two say we ‘experiment’ then? I can totally make it worth your while if you know what I mea-”

*Slap!*

The two hit him from each cheek, making him bump into a bunch of desks behind as he falls backwards.

“Say goodbye to your miserable school life shithead! I don’t care what your name is! YOU.ARE.FUCKED‼!”

The two then storms out of the classroom in a burning fury leaving the ones who witnessed everything to look at Sei with dubious eyes. Multiple whispers ran amok in the room.

“Did you saw how he acted?”

“Creepy…”

“Better keep some distance of him from now on…”

“How gross…” Aika just barely witnessed everything and was so grossed out she didn’t have nothing else to say and left staring dagger at Sei was still on the floor caressing his swollen cheeks.

(All according to the plan. Luckily Setsuna-San is busy with the library today so she didn’t saw any of this…I might have to suffer a little bit but at least now she doesn’t have go through any of this…)

****

What Sei didn’t expected was how relentless the girls and the rest of the class started treating him from onwards as the rumors ran wild everywhere in St. Marise.

Missing shoes from his locker, distanced from everyone as they treated him like dirt, to the point some girls even spat on him where he walked, beaten down, his desk completely sullied and doodled all over and bullied by practically everyone in the school as most of the teachers barely acknowledged any of it and the ones that did didn’t care.

Willingly or not. Sei pretty much became the second coming of the title 'Scapegoat' of St.Marise. It became so extreme even he started to having second doubts about what he had done but now it was too late to change anything.

He was a pariah through and through. Sei started to avoid classes even more once he ended up possessed by the mysterious entity he had encountered while crying in the bathroom and his new appearance a few weeks later until his mother forced his hand.

*****
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Sei furiously slams his fists against his deskboard and cries as he remembers how naïve he was when decided to help the girl he admired, not even the fact she was okay managed to convince him that he had done the right thing anymore. 

Finally, he puts on a big pair sunglasses and begrudgingly left his room after his mother gave up and went away for work. Preparing himself for another day, wishing he could rot in his room in peace for as long as he lived...

****

Once the bell rang and Sei gathered his stuff to leave as soon as possible before someone decided to drag into the bathroom stalls again…

“Sekihara-San?” The voice of the teacher behind gently called his name.

“…Yes Nodoka-Sensei?” He slowly turned his head to face her.

“Would you mind meeting me privately in the teacher’s office for a moment?”

“…Sure.”

****

“I’ll be direct. Is someone bothering you?”

“…Huh?”

Sei expected her to pester him about the slight decline in his grades like some other teachers frantically were (no doubt the ones under his mother payroll or threat)

“It has been sometime since you skipped class but you came back completely covering yourself from head to toe and I saw the poor state of your lockers. I was worried something might have happ-.”

“There is nothing wrong Sensei. It’s just me being lazy about it as usual.”

“Are you sure? The last I wish is another unavoidable tragedy such as-“

“I said I am fine!!” Sei couldn’t help but raise his voice a little as he became misty-eyed as all the others teachers focused their eyes on him.

“It’s not like you lot will do anything about it anyway…”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. If that is it, I would like for this meeting to be over. I have a strict curfew to follow.”

“…Alright. You are dismissed.”

Sei leaves his chair abruptly without saying anything else.

“Sigh…”

“Problem children huh Nodoka-San?” The teacher sitting behind asks her rolls his chair, pokes his head out and asks her over the desk division.

“We should do something about this! Its clear Sekihara-San is being bullied into submission!”

“It’s the student’s own problem to deal with his lack of cooperation between his classmates. Besides he didn’t ask for help and we are not paid to deal with all of their problems. Lastly, his mother is dangerous to deal with. If it was up to me, he should repeat another year on his several absences alone despite his almost perfect grades.” 

Many of the teachers nodded their heads in agreement while other abstained from participating.

The kind teacher looked around with disgust at his response and couldn’t help but grow angry and angrier.

“Are we really going to be passive about this sort of issue once again!? Need I remind everyone we entered the headlines responsible for the death of a-“

“By the way, you shouldn’t talk about this topic so freely. It’s taboo. The principal made it clear that warrants being fired and even expelled two students for talking about it just recently. You should watch out for that Nodoka-San.”

“Then I’m quitting. This year will be my last teaching in this place. My last ordeal here will be rallying for Sei and his graduation. That boy has suffered enough.”

“…Suit yourself.” The man shrugged.

****

May of the following year….

“Alright. Makeup? Check. Suit? Check. Bus pass? Check.”

Nodoka is preparing herself for an interview for a new job that someone she had met  recently referred her for an application. She has been unemployed for the last two months and have been sustaining herself out nothing but rice, miso soup and grass.

“Hm?”

However, soon as she left her house. She sees a young boy in a school uniform sticking something inside her mailbox. He looked somewhat familiar but Nodoka couldn’t point her finger on it.

“Shit!” Once he realized she had saw him he quickly turned and ran away from the scene.

“Hey aren’t you- hey wait!”

The boy was fast on his and she was unable question the boy as he hid his face. She then noticed a letter sticking out of her mailbox. The sender’s name surprised her and made her eyes go wide. Curious, she opened the letter before doing anything else. Despite being almost late for her interview.

{Dear Nodoka-Sensei. How are you doing? I’m not sure you if you remember me but I’m Sekihara Sei. I was one of your students last year back in St. Marise. I recently heard you had resigned and how hard you tried to help me pass the year via a close friend of mine. I would like to thank you for everything you did for me back then and apologize for two things:

1-      For being such a tiring student from beginning to end. I’ll now fully aware how stubborn I can once I get something stuck on my head and can disregard the subtle things others did for me hahaha.

2-      I would like to apologize for not partaking in the graduation ceremony despite everything you did for me and thank you there. I...had some reasons I cannot disclosed to not come in only my uniform back then.

Thanking you in person after all this time is a bit embarrassing which is why I’m sending you this letter. I would like to let you know that decided to go back and give life and school another chance thanks to you and my mentor incessant efforts too. I wish you the very best. You are one of the best teachers that I didn't deserved.

                                                                                              Best regards, Sekihara Sei.}

“Sekihara-San…Hm? What’s this?” 

There was something small written in the back of the letter:

{P.S: I ‘advised’ S.t Marise to increase the amount in your bank account balance by two digits via their meager severance package. Don't worry it was totally legal procedure! Good luck with your interview!}

The words of a certain man that recently visited her for information and invited her for a drink earlier this week echoed in her mind:

“Bwahaha!! No need to worry about him! Sei's a kind kid despite the ego! He keeps some distance from others because he thinks he might hurt someone or think its too bothersome but he can’t really leave others alone either! I can’t wait to see what kind of adult he will become in a few years! Bwahahaha‼!”
“He really was...” The teacher said with a smile as she looks at nothing in particular on the sky as she reminisces.
She remembers that one time she saw him staying behind in class and secretly organizing the classroom alone, fixing then cleaning the unsavory notes left on some broken student desk next to the blackboard and feeding the baby chicks in abandoned bird nest on the window nearby before eventually going home. It was the reason she first started to a kinder look and watchful eye over him.

“Guess even geniuses have some room for growth huh…I can’t wait to see it either Shinjirou-San…”